Beschreibung

Photonics is a key technology of the twenty-first century. Almost no area of life today can operate without optical technologies. In addition to the known areas such as data and communication technology, photonics has become indispensable in many more areas. New applications appear on a daily basis. With an increasing number of applications, requirements with regard to productivity and quality increase as well.

Traditional optical coating processes have been refined in the past 80 years and have now reached their maximal capacity. In order to meet the ever increasing needs, new coating processes with continuative potentials become necessary.

Magnetron sputtering closes the gap between the traditional ion-assisted vapor deposition and ion beam sputtering. It combines the advantages of both technologies. Very dense layers with low absorption and scattering as well as high stability against environmental influences can be created this way. Magnetron sputtering processes show high retention rates and have an excellent process stability and process reproducibility.

New plant concepts with high batch capacity and high reproducibility achieve production costs that are comparable with ion-assisted vapor deposition plants. Therefore, it is expected that applications in the middle to lower segment of precision optics that operate with magnetron sputtering can be produced economically.